BaylorHenry

will you do the FSB and AK74 muzzle brake? did you use followers for your AK74 mags?

AHH yeah that would be nice... it's a galil mag catch, dont' know how the guy put it on, just know it works just fine i'm talking about those 223 weigner, bulgy circle 10, romanian 223 and russian 223 mags

What is a T1? I thought about it, not currently, but down the road I would def. be interested... I think a bulgy 4 piece would be sweet on this thing.

mine

I bought a Saiga 223 a while back. They come looking like this: When i bought it, it looked like this: PKA scope, galil HG, ace stock, 14.5 in barrel w/ AK102 FSB and pinned phantom, galil mag catch fitted for .223 military mags, and a gay ass SAW grip. Problem with it was that it was WAY under-gassed. The idiot had a smith cut/crown/pin the barrel but frikin didn't do anything about the gas system. This is what I did to it: AK101 HG, ultimak rail/ PA mini dot, MAKO pistol grip, ACE stock folding hinge, all clear Bulgy mags, a nice sling...

I say that b/c if that's true, this guy's AK would never cycle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hcuVyTcITQ

the gas tube doesn't actually hold gas though, it just acts more as a piston guide for the piston to head back to the gas block... When I switched from the saiga non-holed gas block to the 4x hole bulgy gas block, my gas actually increased despite the holes on the side to "vent". It wasn't until i put this little cut on the side to vent it that my gas into the system decreased. Why would chrome lining matter? the gas piston isn't even chrome lined anyways and I'm not shooting corrosive ammo

i don't think 762 saigas do. The reason I have them is b/c i put that bulgarian military gas block on (yes they do go through) I wouldn't want to drill the gas block though, that would be so much more of a pain in the azz than switching a gas piston out...

Mad props to madmailman on militaryfirearm.com, he showed me how to cut one groove on my gas piston and now it is one of the softest shooting AKs in 762 that I've shot. The excess gas is just bled off the side of the gas piston now. I took the extra 25+ coils of spring out and the BCG is no longer body slamming my front trunnion. With the bulgy brake it's amazing how little recoil there is for a .30 cal. I tried to hit one of the blow-off holes on the gas block. Kinda wish i cut the groove on the top blow-off hole, but it doesn't seem to affect my recoil or muzzle climb. Madmailman had to use

Here are some pics of mine post conversion:

Does anyone have a collection of gas blocks? I have my destroyed saiga gas block(that you can still see the gas hole. I wouldn't mind donating it to someone who has a lot of gas blocks and a caliper so they can answer our question.

I used a .359 dia drill bit. I viced the FSB on before i installed it onto a barrel and just drilled through with the FSB holding it in place. Then I reamed it out a little more with a dremel.... just a tad bit to clean out the burrs, reblued (or cold blue if you like) and voila. I actually also fitted my brake on pretty tight. I started sanding the back of the brake down so that it would index between 11 o'clock and 12o'clock, then stuck an aluminium cleaning rod through the front brake hole and snapped the punger in place. shot it and broke it in a little, now you can hand index it into

so, I got the wolff extra strength spring and added 20+coils from my old spring in order to compensate the over-gassed system. It feels just like a normal 103 now, but my question is.. will this slam the bolt too hard forwards towards the trunnion?

Thats what im talking about baylorhenrey! glad to hear that,i just bought that AK74 stuff for my X39...........thanks hey man, I did check over and over again that the brake wasn't being hit or slapped anyhow though, so remember to give it some play on drilling it out! good luck man, it worked for me, hope it will for you

300 rounds later, my saiga is still 2-3MOA with monarch at 100m with a drilled out bulgarian AK74 brake.